Set to take effect on July 1, 2015, the law will prohibit employers from requesting or requiring current or prospective employees to disclose the usernames and/or passwords for their social media accounts. Additionally, employers cannot require those same people to add another employee, supervisor or administrator as a contact on a social media account.
According to the law firm Littler Mendelson, while the law states it only applies to “social media” accounts, the laws very definition of “social media” account – any “electronic medium or services where users may create, share, or view user-generated content, including, without limitation, videos, photographs, blogs, podcasts, messages, emails, or website profile locations” – encompasses essentially all personal online accounts.
Employers who take action against or threaten to discharge, discipline or “otherwise penalize” employees, or fail to hire applicants for not disclosing information related to their personal online accounts will be in violation of the new law. Littler Mendelson interprets the “otherwise penalize” language to mean “almost any adverse action that affects the employee’s employment, including compensation, terms or conditions of employment, location of work, promotions or privileges.”
Accounts that were opened, set up by or provided to an employee by an employer, or were setup by an employee to imitate an employer (e.g. use of employer's name, logo, trademarks, etc.) are excluded under the new law. Furthermore, accounts setup by an employee for work purposes without any involvement from their employer also do not fall under the group of protected social media accounts.
With the enactment of this legislation Virginia becomes the 19th state to adopt a password protection law, joining Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.
Source: Littler Mendelson, 3/30/2015
Posted: April 8, 2015